# Curing Salami **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 30, 2001, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curing-salami/70736 "2001-06-30T16:16:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2001, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curing-salami/70736/1 "2001-06-30T16:16:48Z")
I bought me a two-pound Hebrew National kosher salami last week. The price was right, it was packaged in shrink-wrap, and it’s now in the back of the fridge. If I were to take it out and cut off the plastic and hang it up in some dark and cool (unrefrigerated) place, would it slowly dry and shrivel and condense, so that it about six weeks I would have one of those “dry salamis” that are so much better than the regular stuff, and that the delicatessens charge extra for? Or would decay and bacterial infection set in, so that in about six weeks I would have a Martain Death Sausage? ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2001, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curing-salami/70736/2 "2001-06-30T19:06:21Z")
Because it is a kosher salami, you may find that there are less nitrites and other preservatives in it. You could chop the bugger in half and air dry one portion of it to see if it cures correctly. I’d be more tempted to unwrap the devil and place it in a paper bag inside my refrigerator to dry it out a bit. You need to look at the salt ratio and check for the presence of preservatives in the ingredients. Then again, you could just write to the manufacturer and ask. ---
**Author:** ![DAVEW0071](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19b73/32.png) [@DAVEW0071](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DAVEW0071)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2001, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curing-salami/70736/3 "2001-07-01T11:03:09Z")
Mmmmmmm… Martian Death Sausage… I would think curing/drying meat would require a little more than just hanging the thing out to dry. The proper environment for such a thing would probably resemble a smokehouse or at least a sealed and sanitary room where the temperature and humidity could be regulated and bacteria could be kept to a minimum. But of course I know nothing about making Hebrew National Kosher Pemmican, so you might just as well suspend it in the airshaft of your Brooklyn tenement and let the chips fall where they may. Hey, with the humidity the way it’s been around here, **Ike** , I’d be reluctant to leave just about anything edible out for more than an hour. ---
**Author:** ![AKAmame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aca169/32.png) [@AKAmame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AKAmame)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2001, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curing-salami/70736/4 "2001-07-01T12:08:44Z")
Actually, you don’t want a sterile environment for the curing. Part of the yummo taste of a good aged salami comes from the growth of fungus on the outer skin (a white bloom, which may be a mould or yeast). Traditionally the spores of the fungus would be airborne within the drying room/cave/whatever, and add to the characteristic flavour of that type of salami. (Think camembert, brie). Personally I’d unwrap it, not cut it (here, the cut end would attract flies), and hang it somewhere cool and non-humid with clean air circulation for a few days. (Not the fridge - a good salami (one that can sit, beg **and** roll over) is a fermented meat product - and the fermentation by-products are part of the taste. Fermentation is not enhanced by refrigeration.) If you prefer to avoid unnecessary cleaning, put paper towel underneath for the oil which will condense. I used to age commercial salamis inside our pantry like that. That said, I don’t know what sort of curing/preservative system is used in kosher salami, so what Zenster said makes sense. If you don’t want to or can’t ask the manufacturer what they recommend (do they have a website?), what about asking your local kosher deli how they age their salamis? I’m betting they just hang them out the back for a bit. I don’t buy the plastic wrapped salamis, 'cos I had an idea that the manufacturers who were plastic wrapping were using less bacterial fermentation but more chemical adjustment in their production process, and thus the products had less flavour. Could be wrong though. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2001, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curing-salami/70736/5 "2001-07-01T14:59:34Z")
Thanks, guys. I vaguely remember the Old Man hanging salami up in the basement to let it age and dry out, with no wrapping of any kind, but those were probably Italian pork/beef salamis rather than kosher. Hebrew National does have a website, but it’s not very informative beyond product and ingredient listings. The stuff does seem to have less than the usual amount of artificial crapola injected into it, so I’m betting the white bloom begins to form early. Hebrew Nat’l makes one MOIST salami, by the way, which is not really to my family’s taste, and why I’m interested in reducing it to its sausagy essence. I may put in a call to Katz’s Deli, over on East Houston Street, and have a confab with their Dry Salami Man before I do anything drastic. ---
**Author:** ![DAVEW0071](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19b73/32.png) [@DAVEW0071](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DAVEW0071)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2001, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curing-salami/70736/6 "2001-07-01T17:26:01Z")
**Ike** , your command of the language is peerless. Not only did you come up with Martian Death Sausage, but now you’ve referred to the Dry Salami Man (which I put on a par with the Stinky Cheese Man, from the book of the same name). These have created mental images I’m destined, or perhaps doomed, to carry with me for a long time. Just wanted you to know how much I appreciate your posts. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2001, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curing-salami/70736/7 "2001-07-01T21:00:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AKAmame \* > **…a good salami (one that can sit, beg and roll over) is a fermented meat product - and the fermentation by-products are part of the taste…** Finally, someone who appreciates a properly cured salami. [eager voice] Sit up… come’on… Sit up! Goooood salami! [/eager voice] A correctly cured salami should be able to double for a baseball bat or billy club. Those soft, squooshy, under spiced and overstuffed hotdogs-with-a-college-degree that they try to pass off as salamis these days are a disgrace to all of the fungus enrobed, seasoned and dehydrated ground up dead flesh logs that we know and love. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2001, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curing-salami/70736/8 "2001-07-02T02:12:54Z")
{note to self: Mail **DAVEW0071** his monthly stipend} **Zen:** You ever eat a Tuscan salami? They make them out of wild boars or some goddam thing, hide and all. I swear, pemmican isn’t even in the ballpark; I’d hestitate to have another straight-up serving even with _borrowed_ teeth. I had a salami and red wine risotto in a country restaurant outside of Montalcino a couple of months back; my wife pointed at the menu and laughed and said “THIS was made for YOU!” A half hour of stewing in broth and wine with Arborio rice, and it was more tender and succulent than one could expect such a piece of shoe leather to become. Best damn risotto I’ve ever had. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curing-salami/70736/9 "2001-07-19T05:28:15Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Ukulele Ike \* > … **Zen:** You ever eat a Tuscan salami?.._\* You mean a Toscano with chunks of pork fat the size of Las Vegas dice? Prolly my favorite of alla 'em. That risotto sounds divine! PS: Did the salami dry well? ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/curing-salami/70736/10 "2001-07-19T05:39:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ukulele Ike \* > \*\*I bought me a two-pound Hebrew National kosher salami last week. \*\* Of course, you realise that **real** Salami is made with horse intestine, not platic :eek: